Search results

Removing the spindle was not too bad, there are two locknuts on the spindle end & they will be very tight once these are free there are two set screws locating the stepped pulley onto the spindle, they are inside the larger pulley & are hard to see. The front main bearing is held in with two...

I used red oxide primer that i had already, couple of coats & let it dry for a week then two coats of Tekaloid enamel from Smith & Allan, went on well with a good finish.

There is a little plate riveted to the front below the name with SR 1954 on it, presumably an early or first owner. It has a later "austerity style" welded steel cabinet instead of the usual cast iron one. I also suspect it may have been a military one as when stripping it i found traces of a...

Here you go, a before shot!

Nice old lathe, Boleys were of extremely high quality, I am rebuilding a similar one a 4LE model from 1954.

Iroko is one of the worst timbers, i worked a lot of it over the years as a boatbuilder, but i nearly always wore a powered respirator. I bought my first Racal Airstream back in 1984 & have worn two of them out. I was recently lucky enough to find three lightly used ones secondhand that had been...

Lots of things i have made get used a lot, but similar to Roland the one that gets picked up every day is my Cigar box guitar, its the one on the left, happens to be the first one of many i have made & has a wicked tone, i play it every day.

All of those are fixable, a lot depends on if you desire to restore it inc paint so it gleams. If you want a machine that will just work i reckon its a fairly quick job. When i set up my boatyard I got a heads up on three machines, A Wadkin bandsaw, Dankaert circ saw & Wadkin morticer, all were...

Im my trade as a boatbuilder i used a lot of iroko, i am always surprised at the number of people who say it is an oily timber. Now Teak is oily but Iroko? maybe if its freshly felled or unseasoned but all the Iroko i ever used was dry & far from oily. Its one of the dustiest timbers to machine...

A good sling around the web between the ways is as good as the eyebolt, you can balance it by moving the saddle & or tailstock backwards or forwards, good idea to lock the tailstock in position in case it slides off onto the concrete when you lift it.

Sounds like you had a lucky escape! There is a hole for an eyebolt through the centre of the bed in front of the chuck, thats where you are supposed to lift it from. I once had a bantam 2000 that had been lifted with bar in the chuck, It was never the same again. Sold it to a dealer & lost a...

Good lathes, A lot came out of education, this means some will have been well maintained & little used which are the ones to buy. Some will have been ill maintained & hammered by yoofs who think its funny to run the saddle under power feed straight into the chuck (I kid you not!) A check would...

Mostly its the dust that gets you, I worked in the boat trade for years & the worst hardwood timbers were usually Iroko & some Mahoganies, As for softwood Western red cedar is not good stuff, i love the smell of it but it dont like me. Had a couple of reactions to it when machining & sanding it...

If you are going to spray 2 pack poly you need to look at the health implications, the isocyanate hardener is lethal. An air fed respirator is recomended, carbon filter ones are ok for small jobs but dont last long, basically as soon as you can smell the stuff you are getting too much. I...

Keruing is pretty horrid, hard & sticky with resin & the splinters always go septic. Opepe usually used in groynes on the sea shore is a pig to work, I used some in a boat once for floors, hard as iron & heavily interlocked grain. Then there is greenheart which is like trying to work iron only...

You will need to check the wiring carefully, by now the rubber insulation in its lead & internal wiring will highly likely be like crumbly cheese & need replacing before it kills you. Just checked over a similar vintage kango i was given, it was an absolute death trap. Even the armature was...

At school we used some UF liquid glue from Glues direct, think it was Borden, very good but the shelf life was 4 months & then it went off. Went over to using cascamite as less wasteful. In my own shed i still use Aerolite 306 & it is better as it doesnt have the air bubbles in it that cascamite...

There used to be a goodly choice of suppliers but the market has shrunk so much that Robbins is about the only main supplier left who will supply small quantities. Timbmet took over Silvermans & now have a minimum order policy of 10 sheets so they are not worth using unless you have a big...

For anyone starting out in his garage making stuff his first priority will be not upsetting the neighbours with noise dust & smells. If he gets along with them just get on with it. His second problem will be selling what he makes at a price where he actually makes any money at all. If he can...

At the school where i work we have NVD 750-2's as extractors for everything, even the twin motor ones struggle to cope with any sizeable machine. We have had ongoing arguments with our "service provider" who insists everything is fine when in reality the extractors are woefully underspecified &...